| "Purging Bad Blood: Argentina's Long March Toward the 'Dirty War,' 1930--1985" explores the roots and nature the violence unleashed by the military dictatorships during the "Dirty War" (1976--1983) through an analysis of state and military repression in Argentina between 1930 and 1976. Between 1976 and 1983, when the military regime collapsed, Argentines became virtual prisoners of a giant "garrison state" controlled by the regime known as the Proceso de Reorganizacion Nacional (Process of National Reorganization). Obsessed with establishing a permanent military government, the generals unleashed a massive wave of repression that claimed, according to various sources, between 9,000 and 30,000 people. The Argentine military methodology of repression was not accidental.; In the aftermath of the tragedy, many scholars and others sought to explain the causes of the military violence. However, in most cases, those studies provided only partial explanations of the historical roots, causes, development, and evolution of the ideology that drove the military to commit their barbarous acts. This study examines a number of key events that, throughout most of the twentieth century, determined and molded the Argentine military's long standing policy of "purging the bad blood" from the country's political, economic, cultural, and social veins. The repressive methods implemented by the regime followed pre-established patterns with origins in national security and counterinsurgency theories. This study explores the ideological factors, both internal and external, that gave the repressive methodology implemented by the generals of the Proceso its notorious reputation. |
